What is Soundscape Ecology?
Sonification is becoming increasingly popular as a way to monitor complex processes. Let’s say we want to monitor if lots of our servers run correctly. What we can do is to write a piece of software that maps the state of any server onto a unique and recognisable audio signature and instruct the programme to continuously play the audio signatures of the servers according to their respective state as audio. This allows us to follow many processes at once, identify if something is going wrong and arguably in a manner that is much more parallel than were we to build a graphical dashboard.
Wouldn’t it be great, if we were able to do this to monitor our living environment? In fact, we can and we don’t even have to write software to this end. Landscapes are also soundscapes, with different species actively creating songs that signal to their environment and in part about their environment. Further still, the presence or absence of species that do not actively make sounds can massively impact the way a landscape sounds - just think of how different a tree-lined path sounds over the course of the season.
What are the aims of the project?
The field of soundscape ecology (or ecoacoustics) aims to study ecosytems by listening to them. “Dawn Chorus” is a year-long project at BG/BRG Villach St. Martin and supported by several parnters such as Biotop - Science Collective and WiDS, which in turn aims to do soundscape ecology in the context of an interdisciplinary school project.
The project encompasses a wide range of activities:
- We record audio at various sites in and around Villach at regular intervals over the course of a year
- We analyse the recordings “manually”, as well as using established techniques from signal processing, machine learning and ecological modelling, with the aim of identifying human impact, effects of climate change and indicator species in the recordings.
- We develop our own autonomous recording station, which entails the development of a hardware specification, construction and programming of these units)
- We use the recorded material not only for scientific analysis, but also as raw material for visual arts and music projects, with the broader aim of creating an exhibition about the project and communicate the science behind it to a wider public.
What has happened so far?
It’s still early days in the project, but after its conception in 2023, we’ve developed a hardware prototype, built it earlier this year and have just finished the first tests of the components in the course of a physics lab with year 6 students. We’ve done some background research on acoustically prominent species of birds with year 1 students in biology and arts classes, which led to the creation of info-sheets and illustrations that are showcased on a little soundboard website. We developed a recording strategy with year 7 students in advanced biology class and began recording at two sites in Villacher Alpengarten, one site at a pond owned by Naturschutzjugend in Wernberg, as well as private properties in Villach and close to Finkensteiner Moor.
What will happen next?
We will continue to record at the selected site for the remainder of the year and into April next year, servicing out recording stations about monthly. We will field test our DIY recording station and document it as an open source project. With the beginning of next school year, we will look into the analysis of the data in earnest, trying to develop our own species recognition ML system, and using the data to build some ecological models of the respective environments. The data will also feed some more visual arts and musical projects, and we’ll design an exhibition to be presented in the centre of town around Christmas. Long term goals are to implement a data sharing pipeline and perhaps launch a citizen science project from our groundwork.